U.S. relaxes health law income, insurance status rule for exchanges

President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law is slated to begin offering health coverage through state marketplaces, or exchanges, beginning October 1. Until now, the administration had proposed that exchanges verify whether new applicants receive employer-sponsored insurance benefits through random checks. It also sought to require marketplaces to verify each enrollee's income status. But final regulations released quietly on Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) give 16 states and the District of Columbia, which are setting up their own exchanges, until 2015 to begin random sampling of enrollees' employer-insurance status. The rules also allow only random—rather than comprehensive—checks on income eligibility in 2014.